Live Science
Elizabeth Palermo
Here, a close-up scanned image of the bony structures in the toothy face of the catfish calledKryptoglanis shajii that lives in the Western Ghats mountains in India.
Credit: Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
A small, toothy fish, which researchers say resembles the terrifying creature from the movie "Alien," is turning out to be a big mystery for the scientists who study it.
Kryptoglanis shajii is a tiny, subterranean catfish with a number of defining skeletal features, including a bulging lower jaw similar to a bulldog's. The fish's strange, bony face has baffled researchers, who have been unable to classify the odd species.
Humans rarely catch sight of the tiny catfish, and it inhabits only one area in the world: the Western Ghats mountain range in Kerala, India. Though the fish lives underground, it has been known to emerge occasionally in the springs, wells and flooded rice paddies of the region. [See Photos of the Weird Toothy Catfish]
The subterranean dweller is so elusive that scientists didn't categorize it as a new species until 2011. At that time, John Lundberg, emeritus curator of ichthyology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, also began taking a closer look at the new breed of fish.
Reposted with permission
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